The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, is getting a pay increase. A $30 million one.
In response to a proxy submitting printed earlier this week and noticed by NBC, Nadella’s compensation for the fiscal yr 2024 totaled $79,106,183. $2.5 million of this was his base wage, $71.24 million was inventory awards, $5.2 million was non-equity incentive plan compensation, and the remainder was a combination of different sorts of compensation.
That is considerably greater than final yr, when Nadella’s compensation totaled $48.5 million. Whereas Nadella’s base wage remained flat between years, he noticed an enormous soar prior to now fiscal yr in inventory awards, going from $39.24 million final yr to $71.24 million this yr.
Per the submitting, the ratio of complete annual compensation of Nadella to the median worker at Microsoft was 408 to 1.
Notably, the submitting factors out that this quantity really incorporates Nadella taking a pay lower. The “money incentive” portion of his pay was diminished at Nadella’s personal request resulting from a safety breach in 2023 the place a Chinese language espionage group hacked authorities e-mail accounts by means of Microsoft. Per the submitting, with out this discount, Nadella’s non-equity incentive plan compensation would have totaled $10.66 million as an alternative of $5.2 million.
“Because the Board of Administrators appointed Mr. Nadella because the third Chief Government Officer in its historical past in 2014, Microsoft has practically tripled income to $245.1 billion, practically quadrupled web revenue to $88.1 billion, and greater than quadrupled diluted earnings per share to $11.80,” the submitting reads. “Along with one other yr of persistently sturdy monetary efficiency, Mr. Nadella and his management group have positioned Microsoft to proceed to drive efficiency for years to come back.”
Microsoft’s 2024 fiscal yr passed off from July of 2023 to June of 2024. Throughout that interval, the corporate acquired Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, some extent that is celebrated within the Microsoft submitting. Nonetheless, the corporate additionally laid off 1,900 employees from its gaming workforce in early January. A number of months later, it closed Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hello-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and laid off others inside Bethesda. And already this quarter, Microsoft has laid off one other 650 gaming employees in a transfer which Xbox head Phil Spencer attributed on to the acquisition.
Microsoft’s first quarter earnings name for fiscal 2025 will happen subsequent week, offering an replace on the corporate as an entire in addition to the gaming division. Microsoft has been doing nicely on the power of Azure, Cloud, Workplace, and its different divisions, and the Activision Blizzard acquisition has offered it with a big increase to gaming income. Nonetheless, {hardware} gross sales have been dipping during the last yr (an issue additionally confronted by Xbox’s rivals) and non-Activision Blizzard content material gross sales have been comparatively flat during the last yr.
Picture by Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You could find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Bought a narrative tip? Ship it to [email protected].